Enhancing psychotherapy outcomes via providing feedback on client progress: a replication

TLDR

Several systems have been developed to monitor and provide feedback on clients’ psychotherapy responses as a method of enhancing outcomes. The study aimed to determine whether therapist feedback on client progress influences outcomes and session numbers, and to propose further research to enhance feedback effects. The authors randomized 1,020 clients into four groups (two experimental, two control) to assess the impact of therapist feedback on client progress on outcomes and session counts. Feedback increased treatment duration and improved outcomes for clients at risk of failure, nearly doubled the proportion achieving clinically significant change, reduced deterioration rates, and.

Abstract

Abstract Several systems have been developed to monitor and feedback information about a client's responses to psychotherapy as a method of enhancing client outcome. The current study divided 1020 clients into four groups (two experimental and two control) to determine if feedback regarding client progress, when provided to a therapist, affected client outcome and number of sessions attended. Results showed that feedback increased the duration of treatment and improved outcome for clients identified as potential treatment failures thereby replicating an earlier study using nearly identical methodology. Nearly twice as many clients in the feedback group achieved clinically significant or reliable change and fewer were classified as deteriorated by the time treatment ended. For those clients who were predicted to have a positive response to treatment, feedback to therapists resulted in an equal number of treatment sessions and equivalent outcomes compared to the no feedback controls. The results are discussed in terms of quality management in routine clinical practice and the need to base treatment decisions on clients' response to treatment rather than arbitrary session limits. Suggestions for additional research aimed at enhancing the effects of feedback on client outcome are made. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.